Mary Livingstone Pics

Mary

Livingstone

Female

23 June 1905

Slim

Seattle, Washington, USA

Cancer

30 June 1983

Holmby Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA

heart attack

British

White

Jewish

The wife and radio partner of comedy great Jack Benny

Mary Livingstone (born Sadie Marks, June 23, 1905 - June 30, 1983), was an American radio comedienne and the wife and radio partner of comedy great Jack Benny (né Benjamin Kubelsky). Enlisted almost entirely by accident to perform on her husband's popular program, she proved a talented comedienne. But she also proved one of the rare performers (Barbra Streisand would prove another) to experience severe stage fright years after her career was established — so much so that she retired from show business completely, after two decades in the public eye, almost three decades before her death, and at the height of her husband and partner's fame.

Mary Livingstone was an American radio comedienne and the wife and radio partner of comedy great Jack Benny (né Benjamin Kubelsky). Enlisted almost entirely by accident to perform on her husband`s popular program, she proved a talented comedienne. But she also proved one of the rare performers (Barbra Streisand would prove another) to experience severe stage fright years after her career was established — so much so that she retired from show business completely, after two decades in the public eye, almost three decades before her death, and at the height of her husband and partner`s fame. Seattle-born, but Vancouver, British Columbia- raised, Sadie Marks herself came from a respected show business family: relatives included her cousins the Marx Brothers and Al Shean of Gallagher and Shean; her family name Marrix was Anglicised to Marks when the family arrived in the United States. Sadie took part in some of Jack`s vaudeville performances but never thought of herself as a full-time performer, seeming glad to be done with it when he moved to radio in 1932. Then came the day he called her at home and asked her to come to the studio quickly. An actress hired to play a part on the evening`s show didn`t show up and, instead of risking a hunt for a substitute, Benny thought his wife could handle the part: a character named "Mary Livingstone" scripted as Benny`s biggest fan. At first, it seemed like a brief role — she played the part on that night`s and the following week`s show before being written out of the scenario. But NBC received so much fan mail that the character was revived into a regular feature on the Benny show, and the reluctant Sadie Marks became a radio star in her own right. Mary Livingstone underwent a change, too: from fan to tart secretary-foil; the character occasionally went on dates with Benny`s character but they were rarely implied to be truly romantically involved otherwise. (The lone known exceptions: a fantasy sequence on both the radio and television versions of the show, as well as when NBC did a musical tribute to Jack, in which Mary admitted to being "Mrs. Benny.") Mary Benny soon enough displayed her own sharp wit and pinpoint comic timing, often used to puncture Benny`s on-air ego, and she became a major part of the show, enough so that, giving in when she was addressed as "Mary Livingstone" often enough when out in public, she ended up changing her name legally to Mary Livingstone. Years later, her husband admitted how strange it felt to call her Sadie even in private. Livingstone`s honest, wisecracking style proved a perfect lancing of Benny`s on-air persona as a vain skinflint. (By contrast, Portland Hoffa — the real-life wife of Benny`s friend, fellow comedian, and longtime "feuding" rival Fred Allen — played a squeaky friend who usually hied Allen off to `Allen`s Alley` after a brief comic exchange.) But she was still prone to occasional flubbed lines on the show, and many became as legendary as the deliberately crafted "illogical logic" of Gracie Allen or the cleverly scripted malapropisms of Jane Ace and (as Molly in The Goldbergs) Gertrude Berg. Perhaps the best-remembered such flub was Livingstone`s "chiss sweeze sandwich" order in a lunch counter sketch (the flub was referred to for several years afterwards). But nearly as well-remarked was the show on which she was to ask Jack, "How could you possibly hit a car when it was up on the grease rack?" Instead, Livingstone asked, "How could you possibly hit a car when it was up on the grass reek?" The following week, Benny devoted much of the show to poking fun at the tongue twists, chastising her for using the made up phrase "grass reek". But Jack got his comeuppance later in the show, when the show`s guest, the real-life Beverly Hills police chief, was talking about the strange call the department got the night before: two skunks fighting on someone`s lawn. "And let me tell you," he said, "when they were done, did that grass reek!" Mary then took great satisfaction out of making Jack admit to the millions of listeners that "grass reek" did exist ("...Boy did that grease rack!" "That`s "grass wreak!"" "Well make up your mind!"). It was also mentioned in a later show when, while Christmas shopping, Mary notices a toy gas station and says that it "even has a grease rack". This was a typical example of Benny and Livingstone, and the show`s writers` ability to mine classic comedy out of, apparently, nothing much. Mary`s trademark bit on the radio show (other than haranguing Benny) was to read letters from her mother, usually beginning with, My darling daughter Mary... and often including comical stories about Mary`s (fictional) sister Babe (similar to Sadye`s real sister Babe in name only), who was so masculine she played as a linebacker for the G

King George High School

Sadie Marks

Hilliard Marks

Babe Marks

Zeppo Marx, Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, Gummo Marx, Minnie Marx, Al shean, Nancy Reagan

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